Owners of vacant lots in unincorporated Madera County must clear weeds under Chapter 7.26. Section 7.26.030 requires a thirty-foot-wide strip cleared from each property line and street frontage. Failure to abate by the deadline can trigger a $250 fine plus county abatement costs charged to the property.
Madera County's Weed Abatement chapter (County Code Chapter 7.26, Title 7) imposes specific clearance duties on undeveloped parcels. Under Section 7.26.030 (Requirements), 'For vacant lots, a strip of land thirty feet wide from each property line and street frontage shall be cleared of weeds.' Improved lots have a parallel rule - a thirty-foot cleared strip around the exterior of any improvement (reduced to the property line where an improvement lies within thirty feet of it), and an improved lot under three acres may be mowed entirely to within one-half inch to one inch of the ground and kept at that height through fire season. The property owner of record has fifteen days from the date of notice to either abate the hazard or file a written protest, and the Madera County fire chief has discretion to extend the abatement deadline beyond May 1. If the owner does not comply, the county may abate (Section 7.26.040, Operation) and bill the owner, who has thirty days to pay or request a hearing under the administrative-citation procedures of Section 8.01.040. Because Madera County's population (~156,000) exceeds the small-rural threshold, vacant-lot fire-fuel clearance is enforced rather than blanket-waived, though terrain and access can affect how the fire chief sets deadlines.
Failure to abate by the required deadline can result in a $250 fine assessed against the property, plus the county's cost of removal and a reasonable administrative fee. Under Section 7.26.040, those costs are apportioned to the parcel as a special assessment added to the property tax bill as provided in Government Code Section 25845, and may also be recorded as a lien. Owners may request a hearing within thirty days of the county's bill.
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